Music & Sound Notes

March 2006 edition

Welcome to Music & Sound Notes 2006 – the newsletter for alumni and friends of Music & Sound at The Banff Centre.

This newsletter is available online only, so please email your fellow Banff alumni to let them know about this newsletter.

Contents

• Barry Shiffman appointed director of music programs
• Thank you Tom and Isobel Rolston
• BISQC winners tour 15 Canadian cities
• 2005 – Year in review
• Banff alumni collaborate for Tehran Project
• Banff a great mix for audio engineer
• Faces of Music & Sound
• Also visit the new Alumni and Faculty News & Awards page.

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Barry Shiffman appointed director of music programs

Barry Shiffman, co-founder of the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) and one of Canada’s pre-eminent musicians, has been appointed director of music programs by The Banff Centre.

In announcing the appointment, John Murrell, executive artistic director of performing arts at The Banff Centre, noted, “Barry is a perfect example of the sort of arts leader and advocate which The Banff Centre needs, in order to build upon the tradition of excellence already established here, and to propel programming vision into an even more dynamic future.'

Barry Shiffman’s association with The Banff Centre extends over his entire career. Having participated in the Gifted Youth Program as a youngster, he returned for summer studies in chamber music and master classes with Lorand Fenyves. As part of the SLSQ, he participated in a summer residency in 1991. Following the quartet’s first prize wins at the 1992 Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) and at the Young Concert Artists Competition in New York, Shiffman returned to The Banff Centre as a member of the music faculty on several occasions. He also served on the jury for BISQC 2004 and returned a few months later to record the SLSQ’s most recent compact disc, Awakening, for EMI Classics in the Rolston Recital Hall.

From his current home in Stanford, California, Shiffman said, “I am overjoyed to be appointed director of music programs. The spirit of support and respect given to artists at the Centre is without equal anywhere I have seen. It is an honour to be offered the responsibility to see that this extraordinary tradition continues, and to oversee the creation of programs and projects that reflect the ever-changing climate in the world of music.'

Upon the news of Shiffman’s appointment, Geoff Nuttall, first violinist for the SLSQ, had the following thoughts: “While one never likes to go through such dramatic change, I can think of no better fit than Barry moving on to our favourite place, The Banff Centre.'

Effective immediately, Barry Shiffman will join The Banff Centre as a consultant, providing strategic planning and program development for all music programs, including BISQC. Shiffman will join the Centre on a full-time basis in September 2006.

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Thank you Tom and Isobel Rolston

Since they first arrived in the mid-1960s, both Isobel and Tom Rolston have made an immeasurable contribution to the development of Music & Sound programs at The Banff Centre. Invited to teach music at the Centre by Senator Donald Cameron in 1965, by the late 1970s they had turned a modest music training school into a year-round, intensive program that attracts world-class faculty and promotes a solid foundation of creativity and professionalism in every musician who passes through the Centre.

Although Tom and Isobel officially retired in 2004 when a celebratory weekend attended by many alumni, faculty members, and friends was held in their honour, both Tom and Isobel have generously continued in advisory roles during the leadership transition.

With Barry Shiffman taking over as director this fall, the Rolstons will be able to fully enjoy a well-deserved retirement. Upon his appointment, Shiffman said: “The remarkable tradition and legacy so keenly tied to the efforts of Isobel and Tom Rolston will be a constant reminder of what can be achieved in support of emerging artists.'

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BISQC winners tour 15 Canadian cities

The Jupiter String Quartet returns to Banff this March as part of their winner’s tour across Canada – presenting the final concert of the Music & Sound Winter Concert Series. As winners of the 2004 Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC), the quartet travels to 15 Canadian cities in January and March on a performance and outreach education tour. Created in 1983 to mark the 50th anniversary of The Banff Centre, BISQC is one of the world’s leading music competitions.

With January’s Eastern Canadian portion of the tour now complete, we’ve received many positive comments from concert presenters and audience members who attended these concerts. Here’s what they had to say about the thrilling performances the Jupiter gave in Newfoundland, Ontario, and Quebec:

“The Jupiter Quartet was just out of this world.'
Leonard Turnevicius - Music Critic, Hamilton Spectator

“The fire and sweetness of youth is what the Jupiter String Quartet brought to their [Toronto] recital…'
Stanley Fefferman - Music Critic, The Live Music Report

“Many thanks for this opportunity for our listeners to discover these young and generous musicians!'
Odile Magnan, Montreal - Producer, CBC Radio-Canada

In Montreal, 526 people packed the concert hall to hear the quartet, while some would-be concert-goers were turned away at the door.

This month, the quartet will present five concerts in B.C.; a concert in Winnipeg and London, Ontario; and with Robert Plano, laureate of the 2003 Honens International Piano Competition, concerts in Calgary, Edmonton, and Banff. View the tour schedule for more information.

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2005 • Year in review

Over 900 participants took part in Music & Sound’s programs in 2005. Here are some photo highlights from the year, courtesy of photographers Don Lee and Tara Nicholson.

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Winter Residency

Thomas Cosbey rehearses with visiting artist Paul Katz.		Jasna Jovicevic jams with Stefan Schneider and Australia’s Christopher Hale Trio. "The Banff Centre changed my life and I know I’m not the first one." Jasna Jovicevic, Hungary.
The Music Makers took their show on the road to rural Alberta elementary schools in March 2005.		Fanny Bray from the Netherlands performs in Rolston Recital Hall.

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Harpfest West

World-renowned soloist and teacher Judy Loman led a three-day celebration of harp music in May.

A harp ensemble concert closed the festival, featuring over 40 harpists on stage - the largest ever to play in Canada!

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Violin and Bow Repair & Restoration Workshops

Internationally-renowned maker/restorer William Salchow led the first of three workshops that took place June.

Over 20 makers and restorers took part in the workshops, working with each other, master maker/restorers, and musicians in the summer music programs.

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Jazz Workshops

Han Bennink and Ernst Glerum from the Dutch Instant Composers Pool rocks out at a master class.	The jazz orchestra in a rehearsal session.
Marianne Trudel works with 2005 Jazz Orchestra guest composer, Muhal Richard Abrams	Dave Douglas leads an animated master class session.

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Summer Programs

Frøydis Ree Wekre leads a master class.	Stéphane Lévesque gives some feedback at the bassoon master class.
Erika Raum gives a private lesson in her studio.

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Audio Work Studies

Josh Tidsbury records a session with the jazz orchestra.

The summer audio team and staff pose for a photo in Luscar Studio.

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Banff alumni collaborate for Tehran Project

When Isobel Rolston, then director of the Music & Sound residency program, received an application from an Iranian musician named Amir Amiri in 1996, she didn’t know what to make of it. “We’d never had a santur player before,' she explained. The santur, a Persian zither-type stringed instrument played with delicate wooden mallets, is a traditional eastern musical instrument – she wondered how this instrument and its player would fit in to a program with western classical and jazz musicians. “He did come, and not only did he find a way to fit in with the other musicians, he took over,' she says.

At the Centre, Amiri’s eyes and ears were opened to a world of new possibilities in music making. Over the years, returning to Banff many times, he spearheaded the creation of a new variety of music that fuses eastern harmonies and rhythm with western ideas of collaboration and composition.

“Banff is a meeting place,' says Amiri. It was at the Centre that Amiri met musicians who would change the course of his music and his life. It was here that he met two of Canada’s jazz greats – Hugh Fraser and John Stetch – faculty members of programs Amiri attended, who would become his mentors on a path to the invention of music that would be distinctly his own. It was also in Banff that he met two classically-trained musicians, violinist Linling Hsu and cellist Rebecca Wenham, who would eventually become part of Amiri’s groundbreaking music ensemble.

This past November, Amiri, along with Stetch, Fraser, Hsu, Wenhan, and another musician he met at the Centre – Persian percussionist Ziya Tabassian – collaborated for the Tehran Project in Calgary’s Jack Singer Concert Hall. Hundreds packed the theatre to hear the eclectic, energizing, and deeply moving music written by Amiri since moving to Canada, and performed by the group of Banff alumni. Thanks to these Banff connections, performances such as this one in Calgary, the release of a recording, and broadcasts on radio stations across the country, Amiri has garnered recognition as an artist who is writing a new page in world music.

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Banff a great mix for audio engineer

For Albertan Joshua Tidsbury, The Banff Centre provided an opportunity to turn a passion into a profession. Tidsbury completed a neuroscience degree in 2004 and was well on his way to a medical career when he decided to change course to pursue his passion for music and recording. He applied to the master’s in sound recording program at McGill, but was told that the fact that he held a science, not a music, degree meant he didn’t have the necessary credentials to be accepted.

It was around the same time that Tidsbury met Theresa Leonard, the Centre’s director of audio. Tidsbury already had some impressive audio accomplishments under his belt, having built a recording studio and founded Canada’s first high school recording technology program at a Calgary school. Recognizing he had talent that needed a place to grow, Leonard encouraged Tidsbury to apply for the Centre’s audio work study program.

Tidsbury was accepted as an audio assistant work study in the fall of 2004. By the spring of 2005, he was promoted to audio associate. He worked on a huge array of Centre projects including jazz studio recording sessions, recording on film sets and for more than 30 live classical concerts, as well as doing audio post-production and demo recordings in a variety of music genres.

“The exposure to a truly professional audio engineering environment doesn’t exist elsewhere in an educational environment,' Tidsbury says. “Here, I’ve been given the opportunity to work on my own projects, experiment, fail, and learn from it. I have time to re-mix something six times and six ways, and learn from the process. For people who are self-directed and have a goal – there is nowhere else that will put you as far ahead.'

And Tidsbury has succeeded at his goal – not only was he one of the six audio engineers accepted to the McGill master’s program in 2005, but he was offered a full tuition scholarship. Tidsbury credits Banff for his successful career change, “Theresa was willing to take a chance on me. She really pushed me to achieve. For those two things, I owe her and The Banff Centre greatly.'

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Faces of Music & Sound

Also visit the Faces of Music & Sound, a new feature on our website, for more news from alumni from our 2005 programs.

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Alumni and Faculty News & Awards

Visit our updated News & Awards page.